Chasing Pavements
by Alactricity
Summary: One-shot. Three years after Ruby's death, Gran's still struggling to keep the grieving and rebellious Sadie under control. Too bad Sadie has no intention of being put on a leash.


A/N: Hey guys! Long time no see. I'm back with _another _pointless Sadie one-shot. I know Sadie is a little OOC at the beginning, but she's younger, less mature, and hurting.

Here's hoping the new POV is alright and this makes you smile.

Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting: I don't own the Kane Chronicles or Sadie, Gran or Hank, although I do own the OC's and Emma's personality.

-x-

Chasing Pavements 

-x-

Gran was worried. That statement in itself wasn't anything odd - Gran worried about everything from paying the bills to having spiders in her shoes to a terrorist attack at the grocery store. Rather, it was _who _she was worried about that was odd.

Her beloved granddaughter Sadie didn't have a single friend.

Being quite the social butterfly herself both as a kid and in her old(er) age, this self-imposed isolation puzzled her. So she did the only thing she could when confused: Gran read a book. Not just any book, but _Children and How They Cope With Death_, the critically acclaimed best selling novel by the world renowned child psychological who's name was too confusing to pronounce. It was obvious to Gran that Sadie was still torn up over her mothers death (not that she could blame her), and she wanted so desperately to help.

Chapter six recommended signing the child up for an out-of-school activity if they weren't socializing normally three months after the death. It had been three _years_ since Ruby's death and she was still rebellious, still picked fights, still threw her vegetables at the wall and refused to wear anything pink.

"Hank," Gran set fretfully one day, twisting a dishrag in her hands as Hank set down the newspaper and looked at her with ill-disguised grump. "I'm worried about Sadie."

"What'd she do this time?" He asked, scowling at his black coffee. Just the day before Sadie had kicked Hank in the kneecap when he refused to let her eat ice cream for dinner and he was still sore.

"Nothing," Gran hurried to reassure. "Just her behavior in general. She's out of control, wild, and I just know it has to be because of Ruby..."

Hank said nothing and she felt bad for bringing Ruby up - he loved his daughter so much - but it had to be done. Ruby was the past and Sadie was the present, with her future looking bleak.

"Well what do you want me to do about it?" He grumped.

"I wanted your advice," she said quietly, but Hank had already gone back to reading the paper (or pretending he was), and so Gran sighed softly before turning the stove off and wiping her doughy palms on the folds of her apron.

It looked like helping Sadie would be up to her.

-x-

"Gran!" The front door slammed open, bouncing against the wall and leaving a dent that made Gran cringe just thinking about it. "I'm home! And hungry!" She heard Sadie's expensive backpack skid across the marble floor and her black school-mandatory Mary Janes _clacked _as they were violently ripped off her feet and thrown on the ground.

Gran sighed in relief - Sadie was in an okay mood today. Maybe what she was about to do wouldn't result in a bruised arm, burst eardrum and broken china plates after all.

"Foods in the kitchen," Gran called back.

"It better be chocolate chip biscuits," Sadie warned, and Gran lost a little respect for herself when she actually felt mildly intimidated by the feisty nine-year-old with the brutal punch; she would know, having been on the receiving end of it a few times.

Thankfully, Gran had prepared, and chocolate chip biscuits with the steam rolling off them in waves warmed up the kitchen.

"Mmmm," Sadie moaned in pleasure as she bit into another mini-delight, chocolate chips melting on her tongue. "Thanks, Gran."

So surprised by Sadie's unexpected display of manners (so she had them after all!), Gran almost lost her chance.

"How would you like to share my recipe with some girls from school?"

Sadie stopped chewing. "No."

Gran frowned. "I thought you liked to cook?"

"Why would you think that, huh? Because I'm a girl? Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I have to conform to society's norms and enjoy cooking! I don't plan on growing up to be an unsuccessful house wife - like _you_!" Venom dripped off her words and she stood up, shoving the platter of cookies off the counter and crushing the remains beneath her sock-clad foot. "Stop trying to set me up! The girls at my school are stupid and petty and - and - and _mean!_"

Gran was honestly scared, and the poisonous looks Sadie were shooting her didn't help. "I'm sorry," she whispered, miserable but honest. Tears glistened in her eyes and she wanted to know where she'd gone wrong, how Sadie had ended up so bitter and full of rage. Wanted to know if it was her fault.

"Yeah, well, so am I!" Sadie screamed, her face hard but eyes moist with - tears of sadness? Or anger?

And she pushed past Gran and out the swinging door of the kitchen, stomping with small feet on the staircase and slamming her door shut once, twice, three times for emphasis, leaving Gran by herself in the middle of the suddenly too small kitchen.

Untying the apron around her waist with trembling fingers, she left the cookie crumbs on the floor for Muffin to vacuum and left hurriedly, pealing out of the driveway and swerving onto the road, vision obscured by tears and heart heavy with the weight of Sadie's words.

-x-

The next few days that followed were tense and awkward, filled with mutinous stares on Sadie's part, fretful apologies on Gran's and pointedly ignored silence on Hanks.

"How was school today?" Gran asked timidly that night at dinner.

"Just _peachy_," Sadie speared a small piece of steak with her fork and chewed angrily.

"Make any friends?"

"What's it to you?" She sneered.

"I just want you to be happy, Sadie, why do you always turn everything into an argument?"

"Why do you always have to stick your nose in other peoples business?"

"I'm your grandmother!" Gran protested.

"_Exactly!_" Sadie knocked over her glass of water and ignored Hank's cry of outrage as it dribbled over the side of the table and onto his lap. "Your my grandma! Not my mom! _Stop trying to replace her!_" Chest heaving, Sadie turned to leave, to start this cycle all over again, and in a flash Gran knew exactly what would happen if she allowed Sadie to walk away from her now.

She would never grow up, forever consumed by grief for her mom, lashing out at other people with words and violence so they'd hurt just as much as she did. It would never end. And Ruby, where ever she was, would never forgive her.

So, summoning all her courage, Gran grabbed Sadie by the wrist and held her firm in place.

"Let go of me!" Sadie shrieked, tugging on her arm even as Gran kept an ironclad grip on it.

"Sadie, just listen for a moment," Gran rationalized calmly despite her beating heart. "If you don't like what I have to say then you can go and I won't bother you again, okay?"

She was like a balloon without air, deflating under Gran's look. "Fine."

"I know you miss your mother," Gran began without preamble. "And that's okay. I miss Ruby too - every day, every hour, every second of every day I miss her. I miss her right now." Which was true. "But she's dead, Sadie." Adopting a gentler voice, she rubbed small, rhythmic circles on Sadie's hand. "Kicking and screaming isn't going to bring her back. You have to know that. You're a big girl now, and throwing tantrums won't solve anything.

It's okay to miss Ruby. In fact, I'd be more worried if you didn't. But you need to lose the attitude."

"I don't have an attitude!"

Gran smiled softly and raised an eyebrow. "The third water glass you broke begs to differ."

Sadie stiffened and pulled her small hand out of Gran's bigger one.

"I'll forgive you if you'd just spend one afternoon at Janie's house. Her mom has been begging me for my biscuit recipe ever since we ran into each other at the grocery store and Janie is just a doll."

Sadie said nothing for such a long time that Gran thought she was just going to ignore her, and then -

"I'm not looking for your forgiveness," Sadie muttered. "But I'll go to stupid Janie's house to give her stupid mom your stupid biscuit recipe anyways."

Gran was about to sweep Sadie into a hug when she opened her big mouth again. "But I'm not going for you." She turned away, but not before Gran could see the tears pooling in her brown eyes. "I'm going for Mom."

Sadie left, gathering Muffin up in her arms and taking the stairs two at a time.

With an air of someone who had resigned himself to self-inflicted torture a long time ago, Hank muttered, "Women. You're all bloody crazy."

-x-

Janie rolled her eyes and shifted her backpack so it was on one shoulder. "Just because my mom is making me hang out with you doesn't mean I like you."

"Really?" Sadie asked with mock hurt, placing a hand over her heart and staggering backwards. "And here I was thinking we were going to come out of this best friends for life!"

"Oh shut up, Kane," Janie sneered, waving at a few kids they passed on the bus, all of whom either ignored Sadie or gave her dirty looks.

"Why don't you make me?" Sadie challenged, knowing Janie would wimp out before the first punches were even exchanged.

Janie slid into a booth where another girl sat, one who Sadie vaguely recognized as Emma Something, the class nerd. She hated her on sight.

Plopping into the seat opposite theirs, Sadie unwrapped a piece of gum and chewed vigorously.

"May I have a piece?" Emma Something asked. "Cinnamon gum is my favorite."

Sadie blew a bubble in her face. "No."

"Oh." Emma slunk back, looking hurt and confused, and Sadie, feeling a bit bad, was about to offer Emma a piece when -

"Ignore her," Janie commanded, flipping through a Nancy Drew chapter book. "She's not nice to anybody." A nasty smirk adorned her features and she finished, "My sister - who's in _ninth grade_, might I add - said there's a name for people like her."

"Oh?" Emma asked when it was apparent Janie wouldn't continue until she was sure Emma was hanging on her every word.

"Yeah. _Bitch_."

Sadie had only heard that word a few times - mostly in movies, once when Gran and the other old ladies in her book club got in an argument and now. She may not have been certain what it meant, be Sadie sure as the sky was blue knew that it wasn't nice, or something one heard in civil conversation.

Janie never even saw the punch coming.

"OHMYGOD!" Janie wailed, blood gushing out of her nose like someone had just turned a faucet on. "BUS DRIVER, IN-SANIE JUST PUNCHED ME!"

Gran was going to be thrilled.

-x-

Really, Gran didn't know why she hadn't majored in psychology back in her college years. She enjoyed helping others solve their problems and privately felt she could give that Dr. Phil bloke a run for his money if she had her own television show. She didn't _mind_ staying at home all day while Hank earned his paycheck, not really, but Dr. Faust had a certain ring to it.

Or she could go the more homely route and be Gran Faust. Maybe even just Gran. Dr. Gran. Gran the Psychologist. Gran the People Helper. Dr. Trisha Faust. Yes, she could have her own TV show, and would spend her days inviting people with problems that she could solve onto her program, mostly one's who couldn't move past the grieving stage (she already decided that would be her area of expertise), and her catchphrase would be "Gran knows best!" because, let's face it, who _didn't _love kindly old -

The telephone began to ring.

Resisting the urge to answer with, "Dr. Faust speaking," Gran picked up the receiver and asked, "Hello?"

"Mrs. Faust, hi. It's Janette, from Sadie's school. I'm afraid I have some bad news."

The familiarity of how Janette addressed her spoke volumes about how often she called, each time bearing news worse than the last about Sadie's misadventures.

"Oh, dear." Sinking back into the familiar armchair, Gran felt tears start to gather at the corner of her eyes. "What happened?"

"Sadie punched another girl on the bus after school. The bus driver had no choice but to expel her from the bus and she's sitting in the office now." There was a crash in the background and Janette chuckled warily. "Actually, that's her now."

Sadie. Bus. Punched. Expelled. Janie. Cookies. _Nooooooooooo!_

Gran didn't realize she had said that last part aloud until Janette coughed awkwardly. "Pardon?"

"Janette, I am so sorry," Gran apologized. "Truly. Sadie... she's a... well, I thought..."

"I understand," but her voice hardened and dropped a few degrees, suddenly cold. "But rules are rules. This is her third offense where violence is involved. Sadie is suspended for seven school days. Please pick her up promptly."

"Okay," Gran whispered. The dial tone droned as the connection was dropped but she hardly heard it over the pounding in her ears as the realization that Sadie - her nine year old _granddaughter_ - had been suspended from school sunk in.

Maybe Dr. Faust would have known how to handle this, but Gran had never felt so lost.

-x-

"Get in the car," Gran said tersely.

Sadie, rolling her eyes, opened the door and slammed it shut behind her with such force the car actually shook a little. She lazily dropped her backpack and, with ruined shoes, used it as a footrest. "Good to see you too," she muttered.

Ignoring her, Gran pulled the car into reverse. "Are there any cars behind me?"

Sadie popped her gum. "Nope."

Just as Gran was pulling the car out of the parking spot, a black punch buggy blared its horn and narrowly avoided a collision with the bumper of her car. Slamming on the brakes and lurching forward as the car responded, she clutched her heart with her free hand and exhaled loudly. "Oh my!"

From beside her, Sadie burst into hysterics, apparently finding the whole situation hilarious. "You're so stupid, Gran," she cackled. "The car was right there and you missed it!"

Gran could almost hear the elastic snap.

"THAT IS _ENOUGH!_"

Sadie stopped laughing.

"I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE, YOUNG LADY!" Gran bellowed, not needing a bullhorn to magnify her voice. "I HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT KIND TO YOU SINCE YOUR GRANDFATHER AND I TOOK YOU IN, AND THIS IS HOW YOU THANK ME? With getting suspended from school and almost CRASHING THE CAR? You've gone too far this time, Sadie, and I will _not _stand for it anymore! You need to shape up, and FAST. This little tyranny of yours is _OVER!_"

Sadie said nothing.

"WELL?" Gran demanded. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Hands clenched into fists, mouth set in a thin line, face tomato-red; Sadie's voice cracked as she screamed, "_I HATE YOU!_" and fumbled with the door handle, slipping out of the car and taking off into the bushes that separated the school from a construction site. Gran watched as Sadie was swallowed by the greenery.

And then she dropped her head onto the steering wheel and sobbed.

-x-

Ten minutes and a good, hearty, well-deserved sob later, Gran felt a lot better; more composed, in control. So what if Sadie had gotten suspended and punched a close friends daughter in the nose? She pulled stunts like that on a daily basis. And, now that she thought back to the words that had passed between them (more like the words that Gran had stabbed Sadie with), she felt ashamed to have lost her temper on the nine year old.

Gran didn't mind apologizing, if Sadie promised to follow rules for keeping civil company.

Shifting the car into drive, she drove to the empty construction site a block away and spotted Sadie almost immediately. Atop the mountain of dirt, she was hard to miss.

"Sadie!" Gran called, worried about the stability of the dirt pile. "Sadie, please come down. I want to talk to you."

"No!" Sadie yelled back, and Gran thought she could see her poisonous, make-anyone-feel-three-feet-tall glare from here.

She sighed. "Don't make me come up there!"

"I'd like to see you try," Sadie sneered.

"I'm coming up!" Gran said, taking a few hesitant steps toward the dirt mound. She had just gotten this outfit pressed and dry-cleaned, the starch white pants covered in dirt after one step. She couldn't stop the cringe and heard Sadie laugh derisively.

Now on all fours and feeling distinctly primal, Gran scrambled her way to the top where Sadie sat, back aching and clothes caked in dirt.

"Sadie," Gran panted. "Please, tell me what's wrong. I just want to help!"

"Nothings wrong," she replied woodenly.

"I can see the tear tracks on your cheeks," Gran said softly, moving a hand to gently wipe the tears away.

Sadie closed her eyes and turned away, shuddering under Gran's touch. "Stop trying to replace my mom."

"I'm not!" Gran said, defensive. "You're all I have left Sadie. I just want you to be happy."

"What about Grandpa?"

"He's my husband, not my daughter, or granddaughter." Gran explained.

A stiff silence enveloped them. Gran, at a loss for how to carry on the conversation, brushed some dirt off her pants.

"Sorry for getting suspended and everything," Sadie blurted suddenly. "But Janie deserved it."

"What happened?"

Sadie grabbed a fistful of dirt and smushed it between her fingers. "She called me a name. Gran, you don't understand, Janie is a jerk and I hate her."

"Sadie!" Gran gasped, aghast.

"She is! I hate her so much, and if I had to I would go back and punch her again!"

"Oh Sadie," Gran cried. "Do you want to go through life friendless and alone?"

Sadie stiffened. "I'd rather go through life alone than surrounded by mean jerks like Janie!"

Gran sighed. "Don't you like _anyone_?"

Unbidden, an image of the brown-haired Emma came to mind. She didn't call Sadie names. "Maybe."

That was good enough for Gran. For now.

"By the way," Gran said mildly. "You're grounded until your tenth birthday."

"No fair!" Sadie grumbled. "She deserved it!"

"Even so, that doesn't give you the right to punch her. You're going to have to apologize, and get this attitude problem under control. I don't want another repeat of this episode. Do you understand me?"

"I'll do everything but apologize," Sadie pouted, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"I love you," Gran promised earnestly.

Sadie drew a heart in the dirt. "Yeah, I know."

On top of the dirt mountain, surrounded by half-finished metal structures, underneath the wide blue sky of possibility, Gran hugged Sadie. And guess what? She didn't push her away or anything. In fact, rumor has it the immovable Sadie might have even hugged her back.

Dr. Faust: 1

Dr. Phil: 0

-x-

Hm. I think I like this. What do _you_ think?


End file.
